CANADA DEC 25 : A 44-year-old Indian-origin man died of suspected cardiac arrest after waiting more than eight hours without adequate treatment at a hospital in Canada, raising serious questions about emergency healthcare response times. Prashant Sreekumar, father of three, complained of severe chest pain while at work on December 22 and was rushed to the Grey Nuns Community Hospital in southeast Edmonton by a client.
After being checked in at triage, Prashant was asked to sit in the waiting room. His father, Kumar Sreekumar, arrived at the hospital shortly afterward and recalled his son saying, “Papa, I cannot bear the pain”. Prashant told hospital staff that his pain was “15 out of 10,” yet they conducted an ECG, told him there was nothing of significance, and gave him only Tylenol before asking him to continue waiting.
During the long waiting hours, nurses checked his blood pressure, which kept rising. According to his wife’s statement, his blood pressure reading had shot up to 210, and he reported blurred vision, yet he was only given Tylenol. “It went up, up, and up. To me, it was through the roof,” Kumar told Global News.
After waiting approximately eight hours, from around 12:15 pm until about 8:50 pm, Prashant was finally called into the emergency treatment area. “After sitting maybe 10 seconds, he looked at me, he got up and put his hand on his chest and just crashed,” his father said. Nurses immediately called for help and attempted to resuscitate him, but it was too late.
Prashant leaves behind his wife and three children, aged three, 10 and 14. The family loved to travel together and said Prashant was a “goofball” with his kids. Covenant Health, which operates the Grey Nuns Community Hospital, confirmed the death and said it is under review by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The hospital offered its sympathy to the family but declined to comment on specifics of patient care due to privacy concerns.
